System set up by Andreas.
The turntable is imported from the US. In order to operate it in Europe he runs it off a tube based 110V/60Hz supply:
The supply is significantly bigger than the turntable itself. The system uses a third speaker for the center:
The sound:
Best regards
Thomas
Thomas, thank you for showing pictures of the system.
ReplyDeleteTurntable is an Empire 208 with old Ortofon arm and Dynavector Karat pickup.
Since this is an American turntable (albeit with a german Papst motor) it is intended for 60 cycles and so a generator was required, because the mains frequency in Europe is 50 Hz.
Lower portion of the motor drive rack is a vintage Malotki H 50 tube Precision Oscillator for broadcast use. Maximum output of this is about 120 volts and it would be possible to drive a small synchronous motor directly (for instance Linn, Thorens etc.), but for the Papst an additional power amp was mandatory. For this purpose a Rohde & Schwarz 50 watts laboratory tube amp is used in the upper portion of the rack.
Preamp, a Mal Valve Preamp One made in Germany was suitable for a direct connection of the Dynavector mc, but we had the chance to try the excellent step up transformers developed by Michael Ulbrich also.
This preamp was modified to have a shunt regulator hv supply which is a good step forward.
The speakers are Siemens 6S Ela 3814 coaxial drivers in custom made open cabinets. These items are very rare and I have only seen six in my life.
Only a single stereo amp is used for driving all three speakers. Details of the "Enhanced Stereo with three loudspeakers" set up on request.
A SE EL156 power amp made by Frank Blöhbaum gave astonishingly good results with these 15 ohms drivers.